This invention relates to a door installation and a locking device used therein which is so devised as to make electric appliances such as an electric lamp and others automatically switch on and off by opening and shutting the door. More particularly, to a door installation and a locking device used therein, wherein the body of the lock being built in the door is provided with a bolt which is held optionally in the half-projecting position between the wholly projecting position and the door-opening position by handling operating units. The bolt or lock lever in turn puts a controlling means in motion, whereby it is possible to make an electric circuit operate automatically ON or OFF, which electric circuit is arranged to interpose in itself electric appliances, for example, such as lighting apparatuses being disposed indoors or outdoors, therefore giving practical effect to the simplification of operating the switching on-and-off and to a power saving, and further contributing to a safety problem through preventing the overheat and leak caused by the possible neglect of not turning lighting off.
Hitherto, the lighting on-and-off of illuminaters or heaters at the time of going in and out through the door is usually done by switching-on before the entrance or by switching-off after the exit. In either case, in order to put on and out lights, we must make some other switching operating separately from the operation of opening and shutting of the door. This costs not only labor but also it is liable to bring about the waste of power attributable to the neglect of the switching-off, and further it is attended with the danger of overheat and leak in case of forgetting to put out lights. In particular, a certain kind of device which is so designed as to be put up after entering the room has such a defect that we are compelled to enter the ill-lit room at the moment of opening the door, therefore being required to labor and fumble in the darkness for the switch and operate it.
As an aid to resolve such a difficulty as mentioned above, some devices were contrived, for example, such as the one wherein the door is as a rule energized to the opening side and the lighting-on is done by making the electric circuit operate ON automatically at the time of the door being shut, the other wherein the lighting-on is automatically done in concurrence with the opening of the door without the inconvenient necessity of the switching operation in the ill-lit room, and so on. However, the former which is kept open as a rule makes a home poor in outward appearance, while the latter which put up the light at the opening time is liable to be left in a state of the door being opened as it is, when the state of being lighted-up is continued, being attended with the waste and danger of power as well as the neglect of switching-off, as mentioned above.
On the other hand, there are known heretofore various kinds of locks such as what is called a rim rock, a monolock, and the like which all are provided in the interior of their own cases with bolts for use in substantially or temporarily fastening the door. All of these bolts go to and fro between the door opening position and the wholly projecting position, and it is only at their wholly projecting position that they can securely hold the door.
Conventional locking devices of such a type that can hold the door only in the wholly projecting position are not capable of discriminating by themselves the state during staying in the room or after retiring from the room according to the then positions of their bolts, wherefore they can not form such door installations as described above which make the automatic motion of lighting on and off. Other than above, there is known also such a device that is equipped with a switch for the coming-out and going-down of the dead bolt of the rim-lock and also finding out the release of the lock, and a switch for detecting the advance or retract of the latch bolt of the cylinder lock and recognizing the opening and shutting of the door, whereby the release of the lock and the opening and shutting of the door are made to be remotely indicated. However such a type is complicated in structure, more than that, can not detect the motion of the person at the time of entering and retiring from the room, and has a mere function to indicate the release of the lock and the opening and closing of the door. Therefore, it is nothing but one that is not able to perform a series of motion such as the lighting-on of the room at the time of entering the room, the lighting-off after going out of the room consecutively, and so on.
Incidentally, there is also such a type of device that lights up during staying in the room by the use of a detector which finds out the incoming persons through the radiation of infrared rays or laser. However such kind of detector has various defects such that it is not only expensive but also it is liable to produce error function, while on the other hand it needs the conduction of electricity, therefrom being accompanied with the danger of waste of electricity.
Hereupon, our inventors have become aware of a number of conversial points and requests in the course of bringing the present invention in completion as follow:
(a) This invention is premised on an assumption that the handling of the operating unit should be executed with certainty. To this end, it is sometimes desirable to provide such a check piece that can project concurrently with the opening of the door, check the door from shutting, and further go back by the handling of the operating unit on the inner side of the door of the room where one has already stepped in.
(b) Such a check piece impinges against the receiving plate when the door is shut, so that it is liable to give an unnatural impact on the check piece and the receiving plate, which leads often to a risk of the failure of both.
(c) There is a case where it takes some increasing labor in the operation of the operating unit at the time of making the above mentioned check piece go backward. If the case is so, it is sometimes desirable to simplify such labor as much as possible and to be able to operate in a same manner as in the handling of an ordinary "temporarily fastening lock".
(d) The door installation to automate the lighting on-and-off of electric appliances while mechanically interlocking with the operation of opening and shutting the door requires the payment of increasing labor and effort in order to incorporate switches, electric appliances and others into the door and/or the door frame. Accordingly, supposing all of these operations are executed on the spot, they are apt to become inferior in the efficiency of execution and unstable in quality.
(e) In the case of the door installation used at a restroom, e.g., it suffices to take only a single person into consideration, but it is necessary for it to work well also in the place were a plurality of persons go at random in and out.